Mohegan Sun Reports 'Lackluster' Earnings

The sluggish economy and increased gaming competition sent Mohegan Sun's third-quarter earnings down double digits, the casino's parent company said Tuesday.

In the third quarter, Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville earned $44.8 million, down about 20 percent from the same period last year, when it brought in $56.3 million. Earnings also include non-gaming operations, income sources like food service, hotels, retail and entertainment.

Changes in the mix of slot machines and type of hotel occupancy, the company said, caused casino revenues to drop 6.8 percent to $264 million in the third quarter, down from $284 million in 2011.

Gamblers wagered $2.0 billion in the casino's slots in the third quarter, down 9.7 percent from the same quarter in 2011. Profit margins also fell almost three percentage points to 16.9 percent.

The tribal authority also operates Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where higher slots revenues and lower depreciation expenses sent earnings up almost 40 percent in the third quarter, to $10.7 million.

Earnings from the parent company, Mohegan Sun Tribal Gaming Authority, which includes the casino operations of both the Connecticut and Pennsylvania locations, fell 15.4 percent to $50.8 million, a drop the authority primarily attributes to higher interest expenses.

Separately, this week, Mohegan Sun's proposal for a casino in Palmer, Mass., recieved an endorsement from a Springfield nonprofit that trains disabled workers.

The nonprofit, Community Enterprises Inc., has worked with Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, where the gaming company has hired more than 100 clients of the workforce nonprofit.

"For the past decade Mohegan Sun has been committed to creating quality job opportunities for all individuals, working hand-in-hand with our organization to providing training and employment opportunities for people with disabling conditions," said Richard Venne, CEO of Community Enterprises.

Any casino in the region is expected to create a significant amount of jobs, and Mohegan Sun has said that its plans call for as many as 1,200 construction jobs, 3,000 permanent jobs and 2,500 indirect jobs.

The endorsement comes as casino developers are courting municipalities in western Massachusetts as part of the process to win the state's single casino license for the region, which the state will allocate after local referendums and site specific proposals from gaming companies. Mohegan Sun has had a presence in Palmer since 2009, when it opened a downtown office there.